The present invention relates to radio telecommunication networks (also known as mobile networks or wireless networks).
Mobile stations are widely used. Users purchase mobile stations for a variety of reasons such as convenience, increased availability for receiving calls, safety concerns, etc. Today, even members of population sectors which were traditionally viewed as not having large amounts of disposable income such as students, soldiers, pensioners, etc. carry mobile stations.
Typically, users of mobile stations pay a provider for usage of network infrastructure either on a periodic basis (for incurred charges such as calls, is periodic fees, etc.) or on a prepaid basis, In some networks, for a call where the calling party and the called party both have mobile stations, the calling part pays for the entire call but in other networks the cost of the call may be shared between the calling party and the called party.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,006 to Foti discloses in a radio telecommunications network, a system and method of informing a called mobile station operating in a visited mobile switching center (V-MSC) that an incoming call is a collect call prior to delivering the incoming call to the mobile station. The system obtains in an originating mobile switching center (O-MSC), a collect call prefix from a calling party and determines from the collect call prefix that the incoming call is a collect call. A collect call indication (CCI) is generated and sent along with the calling number to the V-MSC in a Location Request (LocReq) Invoke message and a Routing Request (RoutReq) Invoke message, thereby notifying the V-MSC that there is an incoming call for the mobile station and the incoming call is a collect call. The V-MSC sets a collect call flag to ON, stores the calling number in a subscriber record in the V-MSC, and determines whether the mobile station is a digital mobile station. If so, a Short Message Service (SMS) message including the calling number is sent to the mobile station informing the subscriber that the incoming call is about to be delivered and the incoming call is a collect call. If the mobile station is a dual-capable mobile station, a distinctive ringing signal is sent to the mobile station. The incoming call is then delivered to the mobile station, and the subscriber may choose to answer or not. The collect call flag is then reset to OFF in the subscriber record in the V-MSC.
It should be noted that according to the SMS standard, there is no requirement that a message arrive before the call is established, rendering the SMS (digital) solution of the above mentioned patent difficult to implement.
Furthermore, in the above mentioned patent, the methods used to indicate to the called party that the incoming call is a collect call, make it difficult for the called party to make an informed decision on whether to accept the call. If a distinctive ringing signal is used the called pay makes a choice of accepting the call or not without knowing who is the calling party, Assuming a message with a phone number is implementable and used, then in order to make an informed decision the called party must expeditiously associate the indicated phone number with the correct calling party.
Again assuming SMS is implementable, another drawback relates to the variation in cost between collect calls (generally priced higher) and direct dial. A called party who receives the phone number of the mobile station of the calling party has an incentive to reject the call and call back the received phone number, relying on the high probability that the called party will reach the calling party even after a lapse of time because of the mobility of the mobile station.
What is needed in the art are systems and methods for collect calls in a radio telecommunications network which allow the called party to make au informed decision on whether to accept the call. What is also needed in the art are systems and methods which deliver collect calls to called parties only when appropriate. What is also needed in the art are, systems and methods for collect calls in a digital radio telecommunications network
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for providing collect call service between mobile stations, including: receiving an indication that a call from a first mobile station is a collect call; establishing a first channel with the first mobile station; transmitting an audio request for an audio caller identification to the first mobile station via the first channel; receiving the audio caller identification via the first channel; establishing a second channel with a second mobile station; transmitting the received audio caller identification to the second mobile station via the second channel; and if in response to the transmitting the received audio caller identification, an acceptance indication for the collect call is received from the second mobile station, connecting the first mobile station and the second mobile station to each other.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a method for providing collect call service between mobile stations, including: receiving an indication that a call from a first mobile station is a collect call; receiving a destination identifier for a second mobile station; checking status information of the second mobile station corresponding to the received destination identifier; depending on results of the checking, deciding whether to establish a first channel with the first mobile station or to end the method; if a first channel is established, (i) transmitting an audio request for an audio caller identification to the first mobile station via the first channel, (ii) receiving the audio caller identification via the first channel, (iii) establishing a second channel with the second mobile station and transmitting the received audio caller identification to the second mobile station via the second channel, and (iv) if in response to the transmitting the received audio caller identification, an acceptance indication for the collect call is received from the second mobile station, connecting the first mobile station and the second mobile station to each other.
According to the present invention, there is further provided a system for providing collect call service between mobile stations, including: at lest one mobile switching center (MSC) configured to service a first mobile station and a second mobile station, wherein the MSC (MSC-O) among the at least one MSC which services the first mobile station is also configured to receive a collect call indication from the first mobile station; an intelligent network configured to receive a collect call indication from the MSC-O; and an intelligent peripheral configured to establish a first channel with the first mobile station and a second channel with the second mobile station in accordance with indications received from the intelligent network, wherein the intelligent peripheral is configured to receive via the first channel an audio caller identification, and wherein via the second channel the intelligent peripheral is configured to transmit the audio caller identification and to subsequently receive an acceptance or refusal of a collect call, the intelligent peripheral configured to join the first and second channels and thereby connect the first and second mobile stations if acceptance is received.
According to the present invention, there is still further provided a system for providing collect call service between mobile stations, including: at least one mobile switching center (MSC) configured to service a first mobile station and a second mobile station, wherein the MSC (MSC-O) among the at least one MSC which services the first mobile station is also configured to receive a collect call indication from the first mobile station; an interactive voice response system (IVR) configured to receive a collect call indication from the MSC-O, configured to establish a first channel with a first mobile station and a second channel with a second mobile station, wherein the TVR is configured to receive via the first channel an audio caller identification, and is configured to transmit the audio caller identification via the second channel and to subsequently receive an acceptance or refusal of a collect call via the second channel, said IVR joining the first and second channels and thereby connecting the first and second mobile stations if acceptance is received.
According to the present invention, there is provided a memory readable by machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for providing collect call service between mobile stations, comprising: receiving an indication that a call from a first mobile station is a collect call; establishing a first channel with the first mobile station; transmitting an audio request for an audio caller identification to the first mobile station via the first channel; receiving the audio caller identification via the first channel; establishing a second channel with a second mobile station; transmitting the received audio caller identification to the second mobile station via the second channel; and if in response to the transmitting the received audio caller identification, an acceptance indication for the collect call is received from the second mobile station, connecting the first mobile station and the second mobile station to each other.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for providing collect call service between mobile stations, the computer program product comprising: computer readable program code for causing a computer to receive an indication that a call from a first mobile station is a collect call; computer readable program code for causing the computer to establish a first channel with the first mobile station; computer readable program code for causing the computer to transmit an audio request for an audio caller identification to the first mobile station via the first channel; computer readable program code for causing the computer to receive the audio caller identification via the first channel; computer readable program code for causing the computer to establish a second channel with a second mobile station; computer readable program code for causing the computer to transmit the received audio caller identification to the second mobile station via the second channel; and computer readable program code for causing the computer to connect the first mobile station and the second mobile station to each other, if in response to the transmitting the received audio caller identification, an acceptance indication for the collect call is received from the second mobile station.
According to the present invention, there is further provided, a memory readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for providing collect call service between mobile stations, comprising: receiving an indication that a call from a first mobile station is a collect call; receiving a destination identifier for a second mobile station; checking status information of the second mobile station corresponding to the received destination identifier; depending on results of the checking, deciding whether to establish a first channel with the first mobile station or to end the method; and if a first channel is established, (i) transmitting an audio request for an audio caller identification to the first mobile station via the first channel, (ii) receiving the audio caller identification via the first channel, (iii) establishing a second channel with the second mobile station and transmitting the received audio caller identification to the second mobile station via the second channel, and (iv) if in response to the transmitting the received audio caller identification, an acceptance indication for the collect call is received from the second mobile station, connecting the first mobile station and the second mobile station to each other.
According to the present invention there is still further provided, a computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for providing collect call service between mobile stations, comprising: computer readable program code for causing a computer to receive an indication that a call from a first mobile station is a collect call; computer readable program code for causing the computer to receive a destination identifier for a second mobile station; computer readable program code for causing the computer to check status information of the second mobile station corresponding to the received destination identifier; computer readable program code for causing the computer to decide whether to establish a first channel with the first mobile station or to end the method depending on results of the checking; and computer readable program code for causing the computer if a first channel is established to, (i) transmit an audio request for an audio caller identification to the first mobile station via the first channel, (ii) receive the audio caller identification via the first channel, (iii) establish a second channel with the second mobile station and transmit the received audio caller identification to the second mobile station via the second channel, and (iv) if in response to the transmitting the received audio caller identification, an acceptance indication for the collect call is received from the second mobile station, connect the first mobile station and the second mobile station to each other.